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Friday, December 03, 2010

An emotional response to child rape

This man is not a pastor. I don’t even know if he’s one of the faithful. It does not matter though because my point is about good and evil. This man is a named Eugene Ramos. He’s a registered sex offender. Yesterday it was reported that he allegedly raped a 2-year-old girl in a Dollar Tree store in Union City. They say he pulled the diaper off the little girl and raped her right in the middle of the store. My emotional response led me towards violence as a solution here. In fact, I said, “We need to put a bullet in this guys head if this is true.” I backed away from that position after reflection (it took a few hours).

A comment thread held the words, “This man is motivated by evil.” My point, evil as a metaphysical construct, does not exist. What Ramos did was wrong. His actions were wrong. The alleged rape is wrong. We know this. We can even describe he is an evil person because of his morally objectionable behavior. And that we must be punished him for his actions. The concept of good and evil – that’s biblical. It’s hocus-pocus. And I’m tired of using the term to describe the moral depravity I see in my inbox each day. Using the “devil made me do it” as an excuse, or justifying that we are capably of raping a child because of the concept of original sin, that’s all crazy religious talk. People do bad things. There is no other force at play. The devil does not guide the hand of Eugen Ramos. He raped a child all by himself.

This man is defective. He may even be mentally ill. While in this state, he should never be allowed in public. It’s wrong to desire his death. It right to desire his incarceration. That was easy, and there was no bible involved.